Film Reviews by jM

Well, the message was pretty obvious, but did it need almost two hours of our time to hammer it home. One could have shot a film of underprivileged children being allowed to run amok and to carry out malicious pranks in any city anywhere in North America or Europe. While the children gave convincing performances, do we need to have our ears assailed with unremitting swearing throughout the film? As for the pranks, they weren't particularly funny and the repetition was pretty tedious.

Interesting story, but the film is somewhat shapeless and the dialogue rather awkward. While both the principal actors were made to resemble the two Toms, the younger and the older, it was all a bit wooden and seemed rather amateurish.

While one cannot underplay this brutal episode which took place during the riots in Detroit and the grim realism of the institutional racism, this film missed a real opportunity to deliver a more important message and to provide greater dramatic effect. Did it really have to spend so much footage on the riots and the key event, but so little on the investigation and judicial proceedings which followed? After all, after a crisis and incident such as depicted here, more revealing is how is is addressed in the calmer atmosphere once things have settled down. While we see hardly any of the details of the investigation, the trial is presented in almost summary form, when it is here that the horror of witnessed criminal actions go unpunished reveals the extent to which systemic racism went well beyond the police force. And the political fallout? Absolute silence! This could have been a much better film if it had been better balanced.

Perfect pitch in which the sadness of a lonely man's plight is leavened by humour. While the point of the drama is quite clear, the acting of the entire cast, and in particular of one of the outstanding Swedish actors of his generation, delivers it convincingly. There is a message here for all communities to take on board in a world in which loneliness and alienation are becoming major challenges.

Despite positive reviews and nominations for various awards, this was a very ordinary film, although the lead actors compensated by making the best of what they were given to work with. While the dancing was at times accomplished, the music was forgettable and we found ourselves fast-forwarding through most of the musical numbers. The basic story was trite, although the ending was slightly unexpected.